1868. | Artificial Irrigation. 481 
though the irrigation system that had been instituted in the days 
of the Caliphs was perpetuated and confirmed under the succeeding 
dynasties, until when the Christian conquerors appeared in the 
thirteenth century, it recommended itself for adoption, backed by 
the experienced benefits of five hundred years.” 
Turning now from Spain to Northern Italy, we have been 
unable to obtain any very definite information on the subject of 
irrigation as adopted there either in the classic times or during 
the dark ages; but it is not unreasonable to suppose that such 
works did exist at a period anterior to that of which any record 
exists. There are, however, to be found references to the question 
by writers of the Augustan era, especially the line of Virgil in the 
Georgics (Hel. IIT.), “ Cludite gam rivos pueri, sat prata liberunt.” 
An inscription of Hadrian’s time commemorates the construction of 
an aqueduct in the vicinity of Milan; and some few scattered 
vestiges of dams and other works still exist, which are attributed 
in a doubtful way to the times of the empire from Augustus to 
Theodosius. The late Colonel Baird Smith, in his valuable work 
on Italian Irrigation, says, “That the system was to a certain 
extent employed there cannot of course be any doubt, but I think 
it most likely that water for irrigation was derived chiefly from 
springs, and was used to a limited extent; for had great works 
like those constructed for supplying cities with water, of which so 
many remarkable examples remain, been also used for purposes of 
irrigation, we should have had traces of them left to this day, far 
more distinct than any we now possess. Irrigation on a large 
scale, and by canals fed from large rivers, never seems to have 
existed until comparatively modern times. As in the East, so 
probably in Northern Italy, springs and wells, or small streams, 
easily diverted from their channels, were the sources of supply ; 
and these would, of course, leave but evanescent traces on the 
surface of the country. Itis in France that the most ancient traces 
of actual canals are to be found; and one of these, constructed it is 
supposed about the close of the fifth century, bears at the present 
day the name of Alaric II., king of the Visigoths.* In Northern 
Italy there are no such works so clearly identified, and it is in vain 
that we seek for detailed information on any one point connected 
* Berra quotes from Cassiodorus (Dei Prati detti 4 Marcita, p. 6) two very 
curious letters of Theodoric I., king of the Goths, one to the Senate of Rome, 
directing that all possible encouragement should be given toa certain Desius, who 
proposed to drain and restore to culture a portion of the Pontine Marshes; the 
other is addressed to Desius himself, and exhibits the king as a most earnest and 
encouraging land improver. He promises liberal rewards in terms of great 
courtesy, and says he regards the operations with the deepest interest. The same 
author (p. 8) quotes another letter of Theodoric, in which orders are given for 
the payment of travelling expenses of a hydraulic engineer brought from Africa to 
Rome, tc show the manner of obtaining and regulating supplies of water from 
rivers. 
ye vee 
